We are probably about to take the huge step of leaving the EU that a majority of the population no longer want. We will do so because certain political forces have elevated a rigged, corrupt and unfair vote into something all powerful, that demands to be obeyed. If you doubt this, think of all those who claim a second referendum would be undemocratic: a statement which is a contradiction in terms, unless 2016 has some unique, special status. The purpose of this post is to argue it does not deserve this status.
The UK is a representative democracy that very occasionally holds referendums. Although referendums have been reserved for constitutional issues, it is not the case that constitutional issues are always decided by referendums. Instead they often tend to be used by governments to put to rest major internal debates over constitutional issues. Cameron promised to hold a referendum on EU membership in order to (temporally, as it turned out) silence internal debates within the Conservative party.
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